China Stock Market May Return In The Green

10/8/2017 8:01 PM ET

Ahead of the long National Day break, the China stock market had finished higher in three of four trading days. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,350-point plateau, and it may open higher on Monday as it catches up on some positive sentiment from last week.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower, thanks to a disappointing jobs report from the U.S. and a decline in the price of crude oil. The European and U.S. markets were mostly in the red, and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished slightly higher on September 29 thanks to mixed performances from the properties and resource stocks, while the financials weighed.

For the day, the index added 9.30 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 3,348.94 after trading between 3,340.31 and 3,357.02. The Shenzhen Composite gained 0.69 percent to end at 1,988.49.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as stocks turned in a lackluster performance on Friday, eventually ending on opposite sides of the unchanged line.

The NASDAQ added 4.82 points or 0.07 percent to 6,590.18, while the Dow shed 1.72 points or 0.01 percent to 22,773.67 and the S&P 500 fell 2.74 points or 0.11 percent to 2,549.33. For the week, the Dow surged 1.6 percent, while the NASDAQ gained 1.5 percent and the S&P jumped 1.2 percent.

The mixed close followed the Labor Department that showed an unexpected decrease in employment in the U.S. in September - although the jobless rate fell to 4.2 percent from 4.4 percent in August for the lowest level since February of 2001.

Energy stocks were down as crude oil prices saw a steep drop. Crude for November delivery plunged $1.50 to $49.29 a barrel after climbing $0.81 to $50.79 a barrel on Thursday, with the pullback attributed to renewed oversupply concerns.

Closer to home, China will see September results for the services and composite PMIs from Caixin later this morning. In August, the services PMI had a score of 52.4, while the composite came in at 52.7.